4 Life Lessons Learned from Playing Poker Tournaments

I’ve been killing time lately playing Zynga’s Poker app on my iPhone when it struck me to write this profound post. First off, I am in the camp that poker is not gambling. This was coincidentally a ruling from a Federal judge just last year overturning the conviction of a poker room operator in Staten Island, NY (link at the bottom of post). Having engaged in several forms of gambling over the years out of sheer curiosity and exhilaration, I discovered to have the most control over the game of poker, Texas Hold ’em to be exact.

I don’t consider myself a good player by any means, but I have made it to final tables in a few casino tournaments to experience first hand what all the fuss is about. After usually 5+ hours of grueling mental battles with a carousel of 8 other strangers at your table at a time, there is an incredibly euphoric feeling when you make it to the final table. The guarantee that no matter how  you do at this point, you will be compensated for your time and mental anguish, how much you are compensated will depend on fending off the other equally hungry sharks sitting around you. However, the point of my post is not to revel in the feeling of winning a tournament, rather how it has eerie parallels to success in life.

Humility– Among the many virtues learned from playing Hold ’em, high on that list is to remain humble. The moment you get a big head and start playing less cautiously and constantly bluff your opponents out of their money; you eventually get called out and lose. Sometimes quite significantly.

Risk-Taking– Getting to the final table does not happen by playing it safe for 5-10 straight hours. You will end up just losing as the blinds get higher and higher. Waiting for the perfect hand is not a winning strategy in poker, nor is it in real life. If you want to get to the final table, you must take calculated risks along the way. Luck plays the same role in real life as it does in poker; you never know when it will strike.

Greed– The most obvious lesson learned from playing poker. Not as much as a factor when you are playing in a tournament because you have already committed a fixed amount of money to buy into the tournament. However, if you are allowed to re-buy into the tournament, the element of greed can rear its ugly head telling you that this time will be different. Who knows, it might be, but when do you stop buying in and realizing you are just throwing good money after bad?

Patience– Almost contradicting risk-taking, you still have to be patient to succeed in poker. If your intent is to play every hand dealt with hopes that you will out bluff your opponents and just get lucky on some hands, you will just set yourself up for disappointment and en early exit from a tournament. Most of the pros still bluff with playable cards in the hole (cards in their hands) so when someone does call them, they will still have a fighting chance to win the hand. I don’t have to tell you that patience has its virtues in real life as well.

There you have it.

You have to really respect Don Schlitz for writing The Gambler back in 1978 (made famous by Kenny Rogers’ vocals of course), he must played his fair share of cards.

Link: http://reason.com/blog/2012/08/22/federal-judges-says-poker-is-not-gamblin

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